Dave TV Guide: Listings, Schedule & What’s On Dave Tonight

Published: 25 August 2026

Dave is UKTV’s comedy and entertainment channel, and almost everything it broadcasts belongs to somebody else. The exception is Red Dwarf, which Dave revived in 2009 with the original cast and has been trading on ever since. UKTV became a wholly owned subsidiary of BBC Studios in 2021 and renamed the channel U&Dave in July 2024, when it pushed the whole portfolio under a single “U” brand. Nobody calls it that. Tonight, Wednesday 26 August 2026, Rick Stein’s India rounds off the early evening at 6pm before Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing opens primetime at 7pm, with Paul and Bob after zander on the River Severn. A Would I Lie To You? double continues the series 10 run at 7:40pm and 8:20pm, then QI XL takes the 9pm slot. Have I Got a Bit More News for You has swapped into the 10pm hour tonight, an extended edition with Amol Rajan in the host’s chair, before Taskmaster closes out the evening at 11pm. Channel numbers are further down the page.

Dave Schedule: Wednesday 26 August 2026 (Full Listings)

Here is the complete Dave schedule for Wednesday 26 August 2026, on Freeview 19.

Overnight

Breakfast

Morning

Afternoon

Early evening

Primetime

Late night

What’s on Dave today

Wednesday’s overnight stretch opens with Mock the Week at midnight, followed by two more Would I Lie To You? repeats at 12:40am and 1:20am and a QI XL rerun at 2am. Richard Osman’s House of Games and a Parks and Recreation episode carry things to 4am, when teleshopping fills the gap until Top Gear returns at 7:25am.

Two Border Force: America’s Gatekeepers episodes take the back half of the morning, then Rick Stein’s India airs at 10:20am ahead of a Yukon Gold outing at 11:20am. Top Gear runs twice more through the early afternoon before Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing gets a daytime showing at 2:20pm — the same episode that anchors tonight’s primetime. Guy’s Garage and Hairy Bikers’ Best of British take the rest of the afternoon, and Rick Stein’s India returns for a teatime pairing at 5pm and 6pm: the 5pm slot repeats the 10:20am episode, while 6pm brings a new one, with Stein meeting India’s first MasterChef winner in Lucknow, handing over directly to tonight’s primetime line-up.

Dave tonight — primetime and the evening schedule

Here’s the Dave primetime line-up for tonight, Wednesday 26 August 2026.

Rick Stein’s India — Dave, 6pm

Rick Stein’s India (series 1, episode 6) closes the early evening with a stop in Lucknow, where Stein meets the country’s first MasterChef winner. It’s a different outing from the 5pm edition, which simply repeats the morning’s episode.

Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing — Dave, 7pm

Primetime opens with Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing (series 4, episode 6), Paul Whitehouse and Bob Mortimer working the River Severn in Worcestershire in search of zander. It’s the same episode that had a daytime airing at 2:20pm.

Would I Lie To You? — Dave, 7:40pm and 8:20pm

Two fresh instalments of Would I Lie To You? run back to back at 7:40pm and 8:20pm, continuing the series 10 run Dave started the night before. Rob Brydon keeps the two teams honest, or otherwise, across an hour split into episodes three and four, with a different set of guests either side of the break.

QI XL — Dave, 9pm

QI XL (series 22, episode 11) settles into its new 9pm home tonight, having traded places with Have I Got a Bit More News for You since yesterday. Sandi Toksvig’s usual mix of trivia and tangents runs to a full hour here rather than the half-hour broadcast edit.

Have I Got a Bit More News for You — Dave, 10pm

Have I Got a Bit More News for You moves into the 10pm slot tonight, an extended edition with Amol Rajan taking the guest chair. Miles Jupp and Andrea Jenkyns fill the guest chairs alongside Ian Hislop and Paul Merton for a topical run through the week’s headlines.

Taskmaster — Dave, 11pm

Taskmaster (series 5, episode 4) closes the night with Greg Davies presiding over a fresh set of absurd tasks for Sally Phillips, Aisling Bea, Bob Mortimer, Mark Watson and Nish Kumar.

What kind of shows are on Dave

Panel shows and comedy institutions

This is the channel’s whole personality. Would I Lie to You?, QI, 8 Out of 10 Cats, Mock the Week when it’s in rotation: two decades of British panel comedy, nearly all of it bought in from the BBC and Channel 4 rather than commissioned here. What Dave adds is the scheduling. Episodes come in blocks you can drop into at any point and leave whenever you like, which is a different way of watching television and, on a weeknight, not the worst one.

Sitcoms: archive and revivals

Red Dwarf is the one thing Dave can properly call its own. The channel brought it back in 2009, a decade after the BBC finished with it, and got Chris Barrie, Craig Charles, Danny John-Jules and Robert Llewellyn all to return. Not Going Out is the other long runner, still in production after more than fifteen years.

Factual entertainment and documentaries

A thinner strand of observational and scripted-reality shows fills the gaps: Highland Cops, Meet the Richardsons and similar, mostly parked in daytime. It’s ballast between the comedy blocks.

How to watch Dave

Channel numbers

Here’s where to find Dave across the main UK television platforms:

Dave is free on all of the above platforms, with no subscription required. Channel numbers can vary slightly by region and set-top box, so your on-screen guide is the definitive source if these don’t match.

Streaming online

Dave streams live and on demand for free on U, UKTV’s streaming service, at u.co.uk and through the U app on smart TVs, iOS, Android and Amazon Fire TV. U was called UKTV Play until the 2024 rebrand. You need a free account, and there are ad breaks, the same ones you’d sit through on a TV set.

Dave ja vu and sister channels

Dave ja vu is the timeshift channel, running the main schedule an hour behind under a pun that has somehow survived since the 2000s. It’s on Freeview 74, and coverage is patchier than the main signal because it shares broadcast capacity with local TV services in parts of the country. Where reception is thin, the U app is the better fallback for anything you’ve missed.

The rest of the family: U&Drama, U&Yesterday and U&W free to air, with U&Gold, U&Alibi and U&Eden behind pay-TV. All of them sit in the same app.

Frequently asked questions

What channel is Dave on Freeview?

Dave is on Freeview channel 19, and Dave ja vu on 74.

What’s on Dave tonight?

Tonight, Wednesday 26 August 2026, Rick Stein’s India rounds off the early evening at 6pm, then Mortimer & Whitehouse: Gone Fishing opens primetime at 7pm. A Would I Lie To You? double continues the series 10 run at 7:40pm and 8:20pm, QI XL takes the 9pm slot, Have I Got a Bit More News for You moves into an extended 10pm edition hosted by Amol Rajan, and Taskmaster closes the night at 11pm.

Who hosts QI and Would I Lie to You??

QI is hosted by Sandi Toksvig, with Alan Davies the permanent panellist since 2003. Would I Lie to You? is hosted by Rob Brydon, with David Mitchell and Lee Mack as team captains since the show began in 2007.

Can I watch Dave online for free?

Yes, free on U at u.co.uk or in the U app. You’ll need an account, and it’s ad-supported.

Verdict

Wednesday’s daytime is straightforward Dave: Border Force, a couple of Top Gear editions and an early pass at both Rick Stein’s India and Gone Fishing before the evening’s proper billing. Nothing here duplicates by accident, which the schedule sometimes does elsewhere on the channel.

Primetime is where it earns attention. Gone Fishing’s trip to the River Severn for series 4’s sixth episode is worth catching for the company as much as the catch, and the Would I Lie To You? double keeps the new series 10 run going with a fresh set of guests either side of 8pm. The bigger change is the swap at the top of the hour: QI XL has moved into 9pm and Have I Got a Bit More News for You has taken the 10pm slot in its place, with Amol Rajan hosting an extended edition alongside Miles Jupp and Andrea Jenkyns. BBC One carries no version of the format tonight, so Dave has it to itself. Taskmaster closes things out reliably, as it generally does.

Related: Freeview Channel Guide | Drama TV Guide | Films on TV This Week